57 Ga. 567 | Ga. | 1876
Most of the heirs and distributees of Violet B. Ellington, deceased, filed their bill against Simeon B. Ellington, her administrator, for discovery and account; the object being to compel the administrator to distribute the estate,'and pay to the complainants their respective shares, each share being one thirty-seventh part of the whole. As originally framed, the bill called for full discovery touching assets, expenditures, investments, and all transactions of the defendant, not only as administrator of the intestate, but as executor of the will of her father, W. B. Ellington, and as trustee under that will, and as agent of the intestate prior to her death. This wide range was taken, on the theory that the estate of the intestate consisted of more than the property set forth in the administrator’s inventory, and that the excess was in the form of money, or other assets, for which he was accountable as executor of her father, and as her trustee and agent. The defendant answered, making the discovery prayed for; but instead of disclosing a balance against him, the answer claimed a balance in his favor, growing out of alleged over-payments by him as executor of the father’s estate, and prayed a decree therefor. The complainants then amended their bill, striking out all allegations touching the defendant’s transactions as
It is full time to close this already too lengthy opinion. We need not apply its principles to all that was done or said by the court, and which has been complained of as error, approving or disapproving everything in detail. The application will, we trust, be sufficiently obvious for all practical purposes. Let the decree be set aside, qnd a new trial granted.
Judgment reversed.